EARLY GARDEN WORK

After planting the garden there will be a little interval of leisure while the seed that has been put into the ground is germinating.

Then will come the time of early warfare with the weeds. Here is where the weeding-hook of which I have spoken will come into play in the small garden. This little implement is in the form of a claw, with five or six fingers, each about an inch long, and shaped so that they reach into the ground and take a firm hold of whatever plants they are placed over. It can be so operated that these fingers, working close to plants which it is not desired to uproot, will tear away the weeds without disturbing the other plants, and the soil will be left in light and mellow condition, as if a tiny rake had been drawn through it. With this tool the work can be done with great rapidity. No owner of a garden, large or small, can afford to be without it.

It should be used to supplement the work of the cultivator, which can be depended upon to take care of all the weeds between the rows, but which cannot be worked among the plants in the row.

Weeding should be begun as soon as the plants are of a size that makes it possible to tell which is seedling and which is weed. By beginning the work of clearing the garden at this period, and doing it thoroughly, and continuing it at intervals thereafter, it will be a comparatively easy matter to keep weeds under control. But if they are allowed to get a strong start—as they will in an incredibly short time if let alone—it will be a difficult matter to subdue them and keep the upper hand during the rest of the season. It is very important that they should be given to understand, at the outset, that they will not be tolerated in your garden. This will necessitate early work and careful and regular attention thereafter, but it will not be the laborious work that so many persons think it is if it is begun at the right season and always carried on on the offensive. It is when weeds have been allowed to intrench themselves firmly in the garden that this work becomes disagreeable.

Nor is it work that will require a good deal of one's time. In the cultivation of a garden it is the little attentions, given when needed, that count, rather than the amount of labor and time expended there, as you will find when you come to have a garden of your own.

If there are any vacant places in the beds or rows, fill with plants taken from places where they stand too thick. In the small garden there should be not one vacant spot. Every bit of soil should be made to do its share of work in the production of some vegetable.

If weeds are kept down during the early part of the season there ought not to be many during the latter part of it. But there will be no time when there will not be some to wage warfare against, and every gardener should make it a rule to destroy every one that gets a start as soon as discovered, for, by preventing it from developing seed, we can save ourselves a good deal of work next season. One weed will bear seed enough to fill the whole garden with its progeny if allowed to do so.

If the soil was properly fertilized at planting-time it will not be necessary to apply more fertilizer, if any, until the latter part of the season, and then only a small amount will be required—just enough to enable the soil to do its share in ripening off the plants that are growing in it. But if, at any time, the plants seem to lag or come to a standstill enough should be given to stimulate active growth.

Careful watch should be kept of everything in the garden, and prompt advantage should be taken of any tendency toward slow development by making fresh applications of whatever fertilizer was used at the beginning of the season. In order to attain the success that the gardener aims at in the cultivation of vegetables it is absolutely necessary to keep them going steadily ahead from start to finish, and this can only be done by supplying them with a generous amount of plant-food. There should be no alternations of liberal feeding and lack of feeding.